Parents urged to vaccinate their children against measles early in the year

As children return to school, health officials urge parents to vaccinate their children before they walk through school gates.

US health authorities have identified six active measles outbreaks and a record number of cases since the country's eradication in 2000.

"In communities where epidemics occurred in the United States, in each of these outbreaks, parents chose not to vaccinate their children," said Sean O. Leary, spokesperson for the United States. American Academy of Pediatrics. "The best thing a parent can do is to vaccinate his own children."

While it is up to parents to ensure that their children are vaccinated, some states and school systems have taken additional measures to prevent non-immune children from going to school.

This is now the case in New York, where the majority of measles cases occurred this year. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) report that three of the six ongoing outbreaks – defined as three or more confirmed cases of measles – are found in the Empire State.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a law removing the exemption allowing some parents to refuse to vaccinate their children for religious reasons.

Mike Segar / Reuters, FILE

This law – like all other state laws prohibiting religious exemptions – still allows for medical exemptions for vaccines, although this only happens infrequently when children have proven previous allergy to vaccines or receive special treatment, such as treatment. Chemotherapy. . Just last week, a state Supreme Court judge upheld the law after a challenge, making this law the first school year where religious exemption is not in force in New York at the beginning of the school year.

In New York, site of one of the current outbreaks, students must meet all immunization requirements to attend school or they have 14 days on the first day of school to receive their first dose of a series of vaccinations.

Miranda Barbot, deputy press secretary of the New York City Department of Education, told ABC News that 98 percent of New York City public school students were fully vaccinated.

"We are working with the Ministry of Health to ensure that all our policies are aligned with this new law, and we have provided updates to families and educators," she said.

In Rockland County, New York, another site of ongoing epidemics, the county's public schools have vaccination rates of between 96% and 100%, according to Scott Salotto, director of communications for Rockland's.
Boards of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES).

O'Leary said that in areas where the vaccination rate is greater than or equal to 95%, "you may have an individual case in a school, but this will certainly not happen inside the school" .

Paul Vernon / AP, FILE

"If parents live in communities where vaccination rates are low, it is certainly worth asking the school what is the vaccination rate," he said.

Low vaccination rates have contributed to this year's previous outbreaks. For example, data from Clark County, Washington State, showed that 76.5% of the 5,680 children in the county had been completely immunized during the 2017-2018 school year. This has marked a significant decline in recent years. County Kindergarten children had a vaccination rate of 91.4% higher than ten years earlier.

Another measure that school districts can take to reassure parents is to make sure their school has a school nurse.

Laurie Combe, president of the National Association of School Nurses, spoke about the story of Mary Pappas, a school nurse in New York, who was the first to discover the swine flu group in the state and has alerted the Centers for Disease Control.

School nurses "can monitor compliance with vaccination, they can remind parents that it's time to receive the next vaccines," said Combe.

In addition, in cases where parents are afraid of the vaccine or have been confronted with incorrect medical information, nurses who develop trusted relationships with parents can be of great help in encouraging parents to vaccinate their parents. children.

"I think what we know about parents who are reluctant to get vaccinated is that a relationship of trust is essential to allow their children to receive the vaccine," Combe said.